Norm Q&A: 15 years of Bellagio&rsquo;s Dancing Fountains

Norm Clarke is one of Las Vegas's most notable and recognizable celebrities. This eye-patched man-about-town knows it all about this vibrant city in the desert -- where to go, what to do, and most importantly, where to see and be seen.

Waves of drenching mist soaked the invited guests, who watched from the sidewalk on the Strip.

Bellagio marks its 15th anniversary on Tuesday, with ice cream and cake for the hotel’s 8,200 employees.

The high water mark for the lake attraction came in June.

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, announced in June that the fountains won the inaugural Travelers’ Choice award for top landmark in the United States.

The fountains bested a field of 1,263 of the top landmarks, parks, museums and amusement and water parks.

Morton credits the box office success of the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise for the fountains’ global popularity.

“When they peel away from the fountain at the end, it’s one of the best movie scenes of all time,” Morton told me in June during a tour of fountains’ command center, dubbed “the bat cave.”

The Q and A:

AWASH WITH EMOTIONS

“The fountains bring out all kinds of emotions,” said Pinney. “People start crying when they hear ‘Con Te Partiro.’ ”

Objects retrieved from the lake include ladies lingerie, wedding and engagement rings and “funerary stuff like small urns with crematorial tags.”

For some, the fountains represent a serene refuge for reflection. For others, a place to turn the page on tougher times.

The recovered loot includes military coins signifying in-theater service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The most curious find? A toe tag, said Pinney.

MOST MEMORABLE EVENTS HELD ON THE LAKE

Britney Spears’ live shot of “I’m a Slave 4 U” that opened the Billboard Awards in November 2001.

The tour stop of the Victoria’s Secret Angels was highlighted by having the fountains turn pink by using gel on the lens of 4,000 underwater lights in November, 2004.

Sir Richard Branson’s June 2010 jet skiing stunt that included a stop at a platform on the lake to conduct Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”

MOST POPULAR SONG REQUEST

“Con Te Partiro” (“Time to Say Goodbye”) by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. The signature song since Day One, it generally plays twice a day, which adds up to an estimated 11,000 times.

THE MOST POPULAR GUESTS REQUEST?

“To have dinner at Picasso on the patio, with the fountain show menu, selecting your songs, with food being prepared by our celebrity chef, the most talented chef we have, Julian Serrano. It is the most remarkable, spectacular restaurant, I think, in the country.” — Bellagio president Randy Morton.

COLLECTING COLD CASH

The lake is regularly vacuumed with a barge resembling a Zamboni that cleans the ice at hockey arenas.

Tons of coinage from numerous countries have been collected, mostly “thousands of pounds of pennies.” All of it goes to charities.

One well-known national charity declined the coins at one point because it would have required cleaning them, which can be time consuming and costly.

“I like building stuff. I did a Callaway golf shoot (about two years ago.) I had to build two stages, essentially a driving range. One at the end and one on the north end – the full distance of our lake – so they (golf pros) could show how far they could hit. They actually hit the targets.”

TICKLED PINK

Favorite memory?

“Oh, God, do we dare say?” said Pinney. He decided to keep it to himself.